When America Quits: Laos Fallout

Aid Offer Rebuffed by Laos

On July 20, 2006 Admiral William Fallon, commander of the United States Forces in the Pacific, made his first visit to Laos, and, according to a news report by Al Pessin, offered the help of American military. However, “The Lao defense minister, Major General Duangchay Phichit says his country is not ready to take the kind of first steps other countries in the region have taken or are talking about. Those include allowing American military medical teams to visit and provide services in some communities and allowing military engineers to build schools, clinics, roads and other needed facilities.

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Admiral William Fallon told the minister it is "not good" that U.S. and Lao military forces have had little interaction during the last 30 years and that it is time to change that.



But Minister Duangchay says Laos must first build its own capabilities before it might be able to work with the American military on such projects. He says he would welcome funds to build schools or clinics, but he says he does not want more U.S. troops on Lao soil, because of what he called lingering hostility toward the United States among some Lao people. The minister suggested further diplomacy to find the right time to move forward.
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Laos already sends some officers for training in the United States. The admiral hopes that will increase, and that the working-level talks he hopes for will lead to other forms of cooperation.

"The leadership here is very remote. There's just no relationship between our countries, to speak of. We have an ambassador and a small staff here. She works at it. But the folks here are pretty reclusive, have not been very interested in doing anything with the U.S. And, so, we've had 30-some years since they took power here with virtually nothing going on. So, I made a real strong push to crack that ice, to take us forward in other areas."


Admiral Fallon also thanked the Lao government for its cooperation in the search for the remains of American troops missing from the Vietnam War era. There are four U.S. teams working at sites in Laos. The admiral visited one of them, Wednesday. Minister Duangchay says the government wants to continue that effort, which is a profit-making enterprise for Laos, as well as for Cambodia and Vietnam. But he says Laos does not even have the resources to exchange military attaches with some of its neighbors and, so, is not ready to expand military dealings with the United States.” [Emphasis Added]

An article in Asia Times Online by Richard S. Ehrlich, explains:

“The Hmong remain the biggest complication in improving bilateral ties. Laos, Thailand and the US are now investigating the new group's claims of political persecution, but so far have not reached agreement over who should be held responsible for the crisis. Thailand's Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) last week prepared to send the mostly Hmong group back to Laos, after caretaker Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ordered the ISOC to quickly resolve the problem. Thailand has long provided sanctuary to Hmong refugees as a favor to its US military ally.

The communist government in Laos, however, said it suspects some in the group did not originate in Laos, or might even be faking their CIA-linked role to win passage to America. The fresh batch of 4,500 began arriving last year in Thailand's Phetchabun province, about 300 kilometers north of Bangkok, after it was announced the US would be resettling the 15,000 that had long languished in Thailand.

"They came to Phetchabun only in the hope of resettlement to the US," Laos ambassador to Thailand, Hiem Phommachanh, said on July 13 at an economic forum in Bangkok. "We have had the Hmong problem for a long time ... and now in Phetchabun, and it is because of Vang Pao."